Tech

Believable Edward Snowden 'AMA' is a piece of high-quality trolling

Leave it to Reddit to troll us with a surprisingly funny — and poignant — April Fools' Day prank involving none other than Reddit hero Edward Snowden.

Snowden, who frequently weighs in on current events from his Twitter account, logged on to Reddit on Friday for a special April Fools' Day AMA. Or at least, that's what the moderators of r/Technology want you to believe.

The only problem is, the entire thread is blacked out to look like redacted text. If the real Snowden were involved, it would simply be a clever joke, but it's really just r/Technology trolling us all.

Image: Reddit

You can see the normal text if you look at it from your smartphone. You can also view the text from your desktop browser by highlighting it with your cursor or by deleting "r/technology" from the URL. The content appears to be serious — "Snowden" is answering questions on security, the upcoming presidential elections and other topics.

But of course, it's not really Snowden answering the questions — despite the verified label. (The proof is a Photoshopped version of a photo Snowden used in a previous AMA, and the accounts don't match. Also, some of the text is copied over from the real AMA.)

Still, on a day when so many companies are trying so hard yet still failing (often epically), Reddit's tongue-in-cheek prank is a good reminder that sometimes the best jokes are the simplest.

Mashable
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